PHILADELPHIA (AP) — The San Diego Padres designated outfielder Nick Castellanos for assignment on Wednesday, one day after he received a video tribute in his return to Philadelphia.
Castellanos was released by the Phillies in February just ahead of their first full-squad workout at spring training. The Phillies released him even though they owed him $20 million for the final season of a $100 million, five-year contract.
The Padres took a flier on him and spent only the league minimum of around $780,000 for him this season. Castellanos never returned to his two-time All-Star form in limited action with San Diego. He hit .191 with a .560 OPS, four home runs and 20 RBIs in 39 games for the Padres.
“We had conversations with him when we signed him that he was going to earn his playing time,” manager Craig Stammen said. “It was probably going to be a different role for him. It wasn’t going to be an everyday role that he had been accustomed to the last 12, 15 years of his life playing baseball.”
Castellanos spent four seasons with the Phillies but was not in the lineup for his return game, a 3-2 win by Philadelphia on Tuesday night. He tipped his cap toward cheering fans after a short video tribute that highlighted some of his sliding catches from his time with the Phillies.
Castellanos made his debut with the Detroit Tigers in 2013 and also played for the Chicago Cubs and Cincinnati. He is a .270 career hitter with 254 home runs and 940 RBIs.
“I think it was tough for him to transition from playing every single day to playing two days, then two days off, then play a day, then another day off,” Stammen said. “It’s something he probably didn’t really love, either. It didn’t feel comfortable for him.”
The Padres selected the contract of infielder/outfielder Samad Taylor from Triple-A El Paso ahead of Wednesday’s game.
Castellanos had one of the best years of his career in his second season with the Phillies in 2023 when he hit 29 homers and had 106 RBIs and helped lead the team to the World Series.
Castellanos developed a strained relationship with the Phillies in his final season, when his behavior — even more than his sagging production — became too much for the organization. The lowlight: Castellanos brought a Presidente beer into the dugout last June after he was removed from a game, which he admitted in a four-page, handwritten letter he posted to social media after his release.
“Not everything that anybody does is all positive,” Castellanos said Tuesday inside the Padres’ clubhouse. “It’s not all negative. I had highs, I had lows.”
Castellanos did not play in the Padres’ loss.
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